WIN a copy of Kara-Leah’s new book ‘Sex, Drugs & (mostly) Yoga - Field Notes from Kundalini Awakening’, publishing in November 2018. Guaranteed to take you on an intimate journey into the depths of the Kundalini experience. Click here to sign up for the book launch list and go into the draw to win one of THREE print copies. by Kara-Leah Grant I once knew a yoga teacher who would joke how awakening would never happen to her - she wasn’t far enough along the path, or didn’t know enough, or … [Read more...]
How to Change the World No Matter Where You Are or What You Do
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat This month marked nine years since I returned from overseas, after having two psychotic episodes and ending up in Vancouver's Lion's Gate Hospital's Acute Psyche Ward. I was a mess. Eight years prior to that, I'd left New Zealand after completing a journalism certificate, heading overseas to seek fame and fortunate. I'd been runner up to Dux at high school, invited into two Honours subjects at University and voted Most Likely to be Prime Minister of … [Read more...]
A young man, a desire to meditate, and India circa 1979
By guest author John Guthrie April 1979, Kundabodha, a Meditation hermitage in Sri Lanka. This young man had been travelling for some time. Having already begun to learn the disciplines of Hatha Yoga, he now had a burning desire to learn meditation. In particular Buddhist meditation had an appeal to him. What drugs could not do, then no doubt meditation would succeed. After all, in much of what he had read in those recent times, the authors wrote that the illusory nature of mind … [Read more...]
Healing the black hole: John Ogilvie’s story from drug addict to yoga teacher
John's article first appeared in Australian Yoga LIFE by guest author Ana Davis John Ogilvie is one of those rare people you meet with whom you feel an almost instant heart connection. There is a glint in his eyes that tells of an inner-spring of joy and a hint of boyish cheekiness. His presence is one of yogic lightness that makes it difficult to imagine him ever having plumbed the depths of despair and spiritual emptiness that characterise a destructive drug addiction. Nowadays John … [Read more...]
How yoga helped me… recover from drug and alcohol addiction
This is an on-going series of yoga stories from readers about how yoga has made a difference their life. To contribute your story, click here. Submitted by Clare S. (not her real name) of New Zealand Coming from a dysfunctional family, it is not really a surprise that I got involved with punk rockers and street kids in my early teens. I felt a sense of belonging, I was needed. I brought them food and snuck them home for showers and meals. It didn't take long for me … [Read more...]